Oblivious by Jamie Bowers Read Free Book Online

sharing the yard and meal times with these animals that you have tortured? I’m sure your replacement wouldn’t mind a bit of roughhousing if it kept the new inmate in check.’
    Tanner slowly gripped his fingers around the file and put it under his arm. Doctor Gable turned away and walked down the corridor to the next room. He stopped at the door, placing one hand on the handle getting ready to turn it. He looked back at Warden Tanner who remained to stand stiff in his shoes.
    ‘Just remember, Warden, I can read you well. After all, we do play poker together and I always win.’ He smiled as he opened the door and walked into the room to see to his next patient. Closing the door behind him, Tanner opened the door to Joe’s room and saw Francis tucking his legs under his blanket.
    Gable placed the file on the bedside table and turned to Nurse Francis. ‘Give us a minute please, Nurse.’ He said stepping into the room.
    ‘He needs help, Warden. I’m not leaving him.’ She said as she pulled the blanket up to his waist. Tanner stepped forward and placed his hand on hers to stop her from moving the sheet anymore.
    ‘I’ve got this, Nurse.’ He said with a smile across his face. ‘Why don’t you go and get him some new dressings for his wounds? I think he’ll need them shortly.’ Francis slowly pulled her hand away from the Warden’s. She walked out of the room and closed the door. Joe could still see her for a moment through the frosted glass before she walked away.
    Pulling the blanket up higher, Tanner looked Joe in his bruised face. ‘Do you know why you’re here yet, Parcoli?’ Still breathing heavily from the Warden’s earlier onslaught, Joe stared away from the Warden, refusing to look him in the eye.
    ‘I’m here because you want me here. I’m only here because your fucking pit bulls beat me within an inch of my life. I bet if it was up to you, I’d be buried.’ His eyes filled with tears as he drew another breath, ‘What do you have against me? What makes me different to the rest?’ Joe turned his head towards the Warden as he saw him take another cigar and light it. Tanner stood silent as he watched the match burning down, almost hypnotised by the slow burning flame.
    ‘The flame is an amazing thing isn’t it? Discovered and harnessed by man thousands of years ago. In a moment it can give life to the light, but it can take life just as easily. Leave it to burn and it’s out of control,’ he moved the match towards Joe’s eye as the flame got closer to his fingertips, ‘but if you extinguish the fire before it gets too much, the hand of power changes.’ Tanner threw the match against the wall, leaving a small soot mark where it hit the white paint. He took a large inhale of smoke from his cigar and blew out into the air above him. Taking it in his left hand, he used his right to pull back the bandage on Joe’s shoulder. Joe pulled himself away, putting his hand on the bandage, but he didn’t have the strength needed to stop Tanner. Turning the cigar over, Tanner pressed it into a bloody scar across Joe’s collarbone. Joe tried to scream but the pain paralysed him and made it harder to breath. ‘You see Parcoli,’ Tanner exclaimed as he pressed harder with the cigar into the open wound, ‘not only can we harness its power, but we can use it to our advantage.’
    Joe let out a small noise as the pain became worse. ‘Let go,’ he said, grabbing Tanner’s wrist and forcing his hand away. He dropped the cigar into the bedpan on the floor and pulling the bandage over the scars.
    ‘Nurse, I think he’s ready now!’ Tanner shouted. Francis quickly came into the room with a trolley full of medical supplies. Pulling it up to the end of the bed, she rushed to Joe’s side and started to inspect the wound.
    ‘What did you do to him?!’ she demanded as she pulled back the bandage covering his singed, bloody scar.
    Without flinching, Tanner stared at Francis as she unrolled a clean